1 + 1 Does Not Equal 2

So we had one child, then we added another....basic math would say that we now have two children. Technically we may have only two little people running around casa de phillips but it feels like an army of little ones under three feet tall have taken over and declared war.

Declaration of war might be a slight exaggeration but we are busy around here at casa de phillips. Keeping up with two little ones under two is making this mama busy. Here are some snippets from the past week:

*Feeling brave I thought I would take the children swimming with friends. All was going well until Isaac thought he could simply reach down and pick something off the bottom of the baby pool. This caused him to go under water---sounds dramatic but I was only a few feet away sitting on the side watching him the whole time. However, I was feeding Evelyn at the time. Fortunately my friend Jodi was able to pull him out. He didn't cry at all, but became a bit cautious as the swim time went on saying "Sidewalk, Mommy" (wanting to be on the side rather than in the water)

*The day after the swimming incident, we ventured out to story time at the library. A good time was had by all until as we were leaving the building Isaac somehow tripped. I leaned down to help him up not realizing that we were on a very slight incline. Did I mention when I leaned down to pick him up I let my hand off the stroller that Evelyn was riding in? Yeah, the stroller rolled out into the parking lot, with me chasing behind it and with Isaac chasing behind me. It was not my proudest parenting moment.

*Although thankful for all of our recent rain, it does cause my 22 month old to become a bit stir crazy. On Monday it appeared that we were going to have a break in the downpours so I decided that we should dig in our handy sandbox. I hauled out the sandbox, lugged our big beach blanket outside, brought out a boppy,bottle, and burp cloth for the baby, made a refreshing beverage for Isaac and myself, and tracked down the cordless phone to keep with us. Then I allowed both children to frolic in the backyard (Evelyn "frolics" by lying sweetly in her boppy). All was going well until five minutes into this event, big rain drops began to fall. Ugh. Determined to keep the children outdoors, I relocated this party to the garage. Five minutes after relocating to the garage (this does not count the 20 minutes the actual relocation process took), the rain stopped.

*Determined to lose this baby weight, I load the kids up each morning and go for a long, rapid walk. I still have not come to a decision on a jogging stroller so we are still using the Graco double stroller. The other morning everyone was sunscreened, bug-sprayed, and loaded up. We set out only to discover that something had gone terribly wrong with the front left wheel. By "terribly wrong" I mean that the stroller pulled significantly to the left...causing us only to be able to go in a circle. I am sure the men collecting our garbage who witnessed this gigantic double stroller only going in circles got quite the laugh...

*Hours after I had unloaded the children from the double stroller and we had gone on with our day, Tobe forwarded me an email proclaiming the dangers of putting both sunscreen and bug spray on your child at the same time. Fabulous---I had basically bathed Isaac in the two substances earlier.

*In the process of dressing Evelyn over the weekend, I noticed that the dress I pulled from her closet was wet. This prompted me to look at the ceiling of her closet, which was leaking water. Turns out our air-conditioner was leaking large amounts of water and was about to die. Air conditioners are not cheap, my friend. Tobe has spent this week researching calling, and scheduling air conditioner estimates. Today we became the proud owners of a new air conditioner. Lucky us. I wish we were the proud new owners of a luxurious beach vacation. Isn't home ownership glamorous?

*Evelyn turns six weeks old tomorrow, but she hit that six week growth spurt this week. She has gone back to two feedings during the middle of the night (we were down to just one) to help ease these growth-induced hunger pains. Last night as I drug myself from the comfy bed into the living room to feed her, I flipped on the TV to discover that the cable was out. Ugh. The only thing that makes middle of the night feedings tolerable (besides the bonding with your child) is the chance to watch Food Network uninterrupted. Fortunately the cable had been repaired by our 4am feeding rolled around.

*We are seeing a lot of two year old behaviors in Isaac these days. He insists on buckling his own car seat (a skill he hasn't quite mastered in a timely manner), he seems to have developed selective hearing (seems the word "no" is not in his hearing range, but if you whisper "donut holes" in another room he comes running), and he visited time out this morning. Despite these two year old behaviors, he still tries quite hard to be sweet. The other day before naptime he started to venture off towards a toy rather than go to his room like I asked. He stopped suddenly and said, "Sorry, Mommy. Obey."

Busy, busy, my friend. So busy that I am seriously questioning the whole 1+1=2 thing because there are days when I could swear we had more than just two kids around here.

Enough complaining. These sweet faces make it all worth it

(These are a few weeks old--they are a few of the pictures I took for our birth announcements. By the way, check out http://www.mykindacard.com/ if you want a cool and cheap photo card made of your family. We were extremely happy with our birth announcements and with the lady who graciously made it for us---who has a new May baby her ownself! While you are looking at this website, you might want to glance at card B9a on the Birth Announcement Page...Tom and Susie Smith sure do have some cute kids!)